Lions Win To Clinch Southeast

SOCCER

July 18, 1993|By Scott Carter, Sentinel Correspondent

The Orlando Lions clinched their second consecutive United States Inter-regional Soccer League Southeast Division title with a 4-0 victory over the Montgomery Capitals on Saturday at University High School.

The victory assured Orlando (13-2) of being seeded among the top teams in the USISL playoffs, to be held at Daytona Beach's Municipal Stadium on Aug. 9-12. If the Lions defeat Coral Springs on Saturday, they will be seeded No. 1.

''It's not only the division championship we have in mind, but we want to try to be the top seed going into the final six,'' Orlando coach Mark Dillon said. ''Last year, we faltered a little at the end, and it affected our seeding, so this year, we intend to go in as the top seed.''

Orlando was led by hot-scoring foward Sheldon Lee. Lee, the USISL's most valuable player in 1992, scored all of Orlando's goals Saturday night.

Lee had been held scoreless the past three games, and Dillon tried a new strategy to try to get Lee some good shots.

''Tonight we had an aggressive formation with four forwards, which we had never used before,'' Dillon said. ''We came out with four forwards to prevent Montgomery from putting an extra man on Sheldon, and that opened him up, and he obviously came through.''

Lee, who won the USISL scoring title last season, entered the game as the league's second-leading scorer behind Rahman Allarape of Atlanta. His four goals gave him 18 for the season and lifted him into the lead in the scoring race.

Lee scored his first goal with 23 minutes remaining in the first half and added another later in the half on a header off Tim Geltz's pass.

Dillon said the Lions wanted to come out more aggressive than they had the past couple of games, and the two early goals were a result of being more aggressive than Montgomery (2-6).

''We got the two goals early in the first half to take some of the pressure off,'' Dillon said.

Lee added two goals in the second half as Orlando held Montgomery to six shots on goal and posted its eighth shutout of the season.